1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a robot device and more particularly, is suitably applied to an autonomous moving type robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this type of robots, a variety of robots have been known such as a four-foot walking type as illustrated in FIG. 1A, a two-foot walking type as illustrated in FIG. 1B, a vehicle type as illustrated in FIG. 1C and a two-wheel driving type as illustrated in FIG. 1D.
Ordinarily, these kinds of robots operate in accordance with their configurations by executing an operation program corresponding to the configurations, such as the two-foot walking type or the four-foot walking type, by a general purpose computer accommodated in a body unit or a central processing unit (CPU) mounted on a CPU board.
Recently, as one of these type of robots, component units, such as a body unit and a head unit, for forming the robot are connected together using serial buses and thereby, the CPU detects the connecting mechanisms of these component units in order to automatically decide the configuration of the robot based on the detection result.
Further, one of this type of robots divides an operation program into a host program (hereinafter, referred to as a host operation program) for supplying a general operation instruction such as xe2x80x9cmove forwardxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmove backwardxe2x80x9d, etc. which does not depend on the configuration of the robot and a subordinate program (hereinafter, referred to as a subordinate operation program) for driving and controlling the component units to respective states depending on the configuration of the robot in order to actually move the robot in accordance with the above instruction. Thus, the host operation program, which does not depend on the configuration of the robot, can be utilized commonly between different robots.
In addition to this, the component units of the robot are detachably connected together using serial buses, a CPU classifies the configuration of the robot and it is decided based on the classification result how operation program is selected, that is to say, what purpose (for instance, right foot or left foot) the component units are operated for. Accordingly, even when the configuration of the robot is changed by changing the connecting mechanism of the component units, an operation program corresponding to the configuration can be automatically selected and executed.
However, while detachably connecting the component units using the serial buses can give freedom to the design of the robot, a robot which is monolithically designed in advance so as not to be changed its configuration, can give more freedom to its design or can be more inexpensively manufactured. In this connection, monolithically designing a robot in such a manner can be regarded as a special case of methods for detachably connecting the component units and can ensure the generalization of the host operation program.
For this type of the robots, a method has been considered in which a CPU board is detachably mounted in a body unit using a parallel bus such as a Versa Module Europe (VME) bus or a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus. This method has an advantage in that performance of the CPU is improved twice as high as the previous year every year and the CPU board can be exchanged for a CPU board loaded with a CPU whose performance is improved.
However, according to the aforementioned method, since an operation program (a subordinate operation program in the case of a hierarchical structure) is written in a memory provided on the CPU board, it is necessary to download the aforementioned operation program (or a subordinate operation program) to a memory of a new CPU board using a host computer to which the CPU board can make access, every time when exchanging the CPU board. Therefore, the exchanging operation of the CPU board has been troublesome, so that the CPU board can not readily be exchanged for a new CPU board.
In view of the foregoing, an object of this invention is to provide a robot device in which its functions and performance can be improved with ease.
The foregoing object and other objects of the invention have been achieved by the provision of a robot device constructed by connecting plural component units together, which comprises control means which is detachably mounted on a prescribed component unit and used for driving and controlling each of the component unit in a prescribed state.
As a result, the control means can be easily exchanged.
Further, according to the present invention, a robot device which is constructed by connecting plural component units together, comprises storing means which is detachably mounted on a prescribed component unit and used for storing desired behavior type information.
Consequently, the storing means can be readily exchanged for storing means in which different behavior type information is stored.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a robot device constructed by connecting plural component units together comprises first storing means for storing configuration information which represents a configuration of the robot device constructed by connecting the component units together with unit information inherent in each component unit; second storing means for storing a prescribed operation program; and control means for reading out the configuration information and the operation program from the first and the second storing means respectively, changing the read configuration information in accordance with additional component units connected to respective component units, and driving and controlling each of the component units and additional component units in a prescribed state on the basis of the changed configuration information and operation program.
As a consequence, even when changing the configuration of the robot, the configuration information and the operation program do not need to be rewritten and the control means can be used as it is without changing in order to drive and control each of the component units in a prescribed state. Thus, the configuration of the robot can be changed with ease.
The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals or characters.